We have an absolute right in a democracy to argue about a war.

When a novel comes, it's a grace. Something in the cosmos has forgiven you long enough so that you can start.

I respect most boxers because they're violent people who learned to discipline themselves ... a good boxer is an artist ... Boxing is existential - some fights are better than others.

The desire for success lubricates secret prostitution in the soul.

We are in love with the word. We are proud of it. The word precedes the formation of the state. The word comes to us from every avatar of early human existence. As writers, we are obliged more than others to keep our lives attached to the primitive power of the word. From India, out of the Vedas, we still hear: On the spoken word, all the gods depend, all beasts and men; in the world live all creatures...The word is the name of the divine world.

Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment.

It's not a good idea to put your wife into a novel; not your latest wife anyway.